As surf tourism continues to grow on Morocco’s coast, Bella would like the Indigenous Amazigh culture to be showcased more, even if it’s through something as simple as the meals served: “Those surfer breakfasts with avocado toast—you can eat that in Australia, America, and Indonesia—but we should also preserve our culture by serving Amlou [made with argan oil, toasted almonds, and honey] with Moroccan pancakes,” he says.
Bella notes that it’s also vital for the industry to commit to sustainability as it expands, citing France and Portugal as examples of countries who manage the impact of surf tourism well. According to Nour-Eddine Sallouk, president of the environmental NGO Surfrider Foundation Maroc, marine litter is a major problem in southern Morocco, especially on the Atlantic Coast. “It is a magnificent but fragile region,” he says. “With the rise of surf tourism, particularly in Taghazout and Imsouane, the quantity of waste generated locally is increasing.” The pollution is made worse by the towns’ lack of waste management and infrastructure, he adds.
Sallouk wants the government to do more to tackle the problem of waste and wastewater management and to enforce existing environmental laws, such as the plastic bag ban passed in 2016 that he says is frequently not enforced. But Sallouk also thinks surfers—both residents and visitors—have a role to play. He urges them to leave no trace and pick up their own waste (and even that of others) at the beach, to avoid single-use plastics by bringing a reusable bottle and using ecological packaging, and to favor surf schools and accommodation providers committed to ecotourism. These include Surf Maroc, one of the first surf holiday companies to set up in Taghazout in 2003, which is now entirely plastic-free. Guests are given reusable steel water bottles and packed lunch boxes for the duration of their stay, and are encouraged to use the beach clean up kits stored in all their surf vans.
During my visits to Imsouane and Taghazout, I didn’t see plastic pollution in the ocean, but it was noticeable at some of the beach parking lots. What was more apparent were the crowds in the water, particularly at Imsouane in October, where riding the bay’s magical wave became a risky—albeit thrilling—game of dodge-the-surf-school-participants.
Crowded surf breaks are a problem all over the world as surfing’s popularity rises among finite waves—but locals are already brainstorming potential fixes. Bella wonders whether some beaches may limit the number of surf schools who operate at each spot in the future, whereas Oukhair from Imsouane thinks a good solution would be to allocate two-hour time slots for surf schools to operate, with the rest of the day reserved for residents and visitors who want to surf on their own.
Crowd management comes up at town meetings, Oukhair says, but notes you won’t find any locals with a bad word to say about visiting surfers thanks to their positive impact on the economy. “Before surfing, it was just a village for fishermen,” he says. “My father and brother are fishers and if there was no surf tourism, that is what most of us would be doing.” Morocco’s surf tourism boom has the power to shape the country for the better—now, it’s up to visitors to get on board with what locals want that to look like.